Les Bowen

STAFF WRITER

Les Bowen has covered the Eagles since 2002. Before that, he covered the Flyers for 13 years. He came to the Daily News from the Charlotte Observer in May 1983, just as the Sixers were winning the NBA championship. He thought, "Gosh, this sort of thing must happen all the time here."

Before we all let the Brian Dawkins trauma go for a while, I think we'd like to know why he ended up taking that trip to Denver last week where the Broncos blew him away with their offer, how things came to that state of affairs, after repeated assurances from Dawk (and from the Eagles) that they ought to be able to work something out.

Dawkins was unwilling to discuss his negotiations when he spoke with the Daily News on Sunday, but excerpts from an ESPN 950-AM radio interview scheduled to air this morning suggest he's thawing a little on that front. The answers show the process was pretty much what we all expected, I think.

A station producer sent me an e-mail with a link to some excerpts that I couldn't get to work, but later Tuesday evening, I got a partial transcript that goes as follows:

Did the Eagles let it be known they can go on without you?

“Yeah, in so many words. For that organization, this was a business deal and it was not business for me. People think I wanted to get to free agency. I did not want to get to free agency. I’ve never gone to free agency. I’ve had times in the past where I could have collected big bucks on the open market, but I did not want to get there. So why would I want to get there all of a sudden now on my last contract. No, I wanted to be an Eagle.”

On if talks with the Eagles got contentious:

“I wouldn’t say ugly, I would just say that they opened my eyes right away that this was a business deal that this wasn’t about me being here, who I am to the team to my teammates and what I’m continuing to do. It was about my age and a business decision and that really hurt.”

On how the Eagles made him feel:

“At the end of the day you’re a 36-year-old safety.”

On the contract that the Eagles offered him:

“What I was offered, that was it. I wouldn’t say take-it-or-leave-it offer. No one gave me any impression that there would be any flexibility in it.”

Was owner Jeffrey Lurie involved in the negotiations?

“I don’t know if he was involved in the negotiation, but I feel like if perhaps he was things would be different right now.”